Dogs hear his master's voice before rolling over

Melbourne never let Canterbury into the grand final. They strangled them in the first half and stood firm in the face of a second-half comeback to rightfully claim the title. And Billy Slater was superb. In a year in which we have seen other fullbacks threaten to claim his crown, he has finished the season well on top.

Storm coach Craig Bellamy is the other man who deserves the highest praise for what happened last night. His team won the tactical battle and, with it, the title. Melbourne's defence was superb.

One-off ... Billy Slater flies over Sam Perrett as he scores the Bulldogs' only try of the day. James Graham's alleged bite on Slater's ear came seconds later. Photo: Brendan Esposito

Considering the way the game had gone, Canterbury were in a great position entering the last 10 minutes of the first half. They were behind in all the key statistics, having had fewer sets than Melbourne and a much lower completion rate as well, and having made much less distance but many more tackles and errors.

But the score was still only 4-4. It was a scenario they would have loved to have taken to half-time, but then the Storm struck - and not once, but twice. Of course, two members of the big three - Slater and Cooper Cronk - had plenty to do with it. When it is absolutely necessary, the great players strike, and Melbourne needed to have something to show for their first-half dominance.

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Slater found a way over for a try, and Cronk lobbed a perfect kick for Justin O'Neill to score. A deadlock had quickly turned into a 14-4 lead. Cronk put Bulldogs fullback Ben Barba under enormous pressure with that kick, and Barba couldn't stop O'Neill. It wasn't the first time the Storm had isolated Barba with kicks in the first half, and they had also defended his runs very well.

On the rare occasions the Bulldogs managed to get their attack into gear and engage Barba in a sweeping move around the outside, the Storm managed to snuff it out. They moved up quickly in defence to try to put the passers under as much pressure as possible, and were prepared simply to get a hand on the ball and knock it on - just to stop momentum. It worked.

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Melbourne are killers when they lead at half-time, and the Bulldogs faced one of the greatest challenges in grand final history to come back and win from 10 points down at the break. Ideally, they needed to score a try soon after half-time, and hopefully convert it, to bring themselves back to within a try of the opposition with plenty of time to go. That way they could have played their own game.

But they couldn't do that, and as time wore on, the pressure on Canterbury grew. The Bulldogs started coming at the Storm in greater waves of attack because they had to - and Barba finally began to find the space in which he could play a part - but the Storm kept denying them.

The biggest play of the second half was made by Slater, who came up with a magnificently athletic effort to punch the ball dead when Bulldogs centre Josh Morris was about to regather it for a try.

Melbourne thoroughly deserve to be the champions. It was a tremendous performance by players who were superbly coached and followed the game plan to the letter. The club was heavily punished for cheating the salary cap in 2010, and the league was right in doing that, but they have come back and quickly won a premiership. You have to hand it to them for that.